


It Came From the Sky

by Murder_Media



Series: Halloween Prompts [4]
Category: BlazBlue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Norse Religion & Lore, Blood and Injury, F/M, Mild Blood, Nordics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 07:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8880616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murder_Media/pseuds/Murder_Media
Summary: After a run in with an odd beast-like creature in the forests of his country that has been injured from a previous attack, Ragna tends to the creature's wounds and nurses it back to health. As he bids the seemingly terrifying beast farewell, the monster decides that it is necessary to repay the norseman's kindness with a gift. Rated T for somewhat graphic depictions of blood.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Blazblue.
> 
> This one right here was supposed to be among the Halloween prompts back in October, but since I was a piece of shit who couldn't complete that thing on time, I just decided to post them throughout the year. Silly, silly me, but I'll put in the author note's whether or not this was supposed to be in the challenge or not. This is also supposed to be centered around scandinavian and norse folklore than anything else.
> 
> This one was supposed to be a Monstrous Character!AU, but, in hindsight, this is less Halloween-ish and more Christmas like.

He stood perfectly still while his heart pounded rapidly in his chest. His lips chapped from keeping them so very tightly pursed for so long, and glove covered palms growing slick from sweat as the sounds of the giant creature's feet stomped across the cold and frigid snow and shook the very Earth beneath his feet. It was growing closer, the monster—its ghastly bay and booming steps forcing the poor, young villager to close his eyes shut and bear the nearing presence of the beast who still seemed ignorant of his trespassing into its forests. All he wanted to do was come here into these woods and retrieve the ball that he and his brothers accidentally punted into the trees—not potentially encounter the demon that could destroy anyone and anything that wandered into its domain.

He was not allowed to venture anywhere near these forests for it was entirely forbidden for him—for his entire clan even—to do so. Here in these tall and expansive woodlands lurked a being so foreign, so secluded, and oh so frightening, that anyone who was unfortunate enough to encounter it has never lived to tell the tale of where it came from or what it even looked like. Some conspiracists say that it resembled something like that of a giant man-eating vulpes with scraggly fur and bulging black eyes while others say that it looked more or less rodent-like with huge, clawed feet and whole incisors the size of a grown man.

At first he paid very little if any attention to the legends and myths surrounding the unknown creature and always thought that the tribesmen called this forest "forbidden" just to prevent the children of his village from running off inside of it and getting lost within the timberland, but as Ragna stood silently behind the withering bark of an old, dying oak tree, his legs quaking from fear and face beading with sweat, he knew that everything that he once disbelieved in was so dreadfully false. Not one of those tales of a man-eating beast was fake, and he felt so very stupid that he never actually took it all to heart—if he wasn't too careful, he really could become this monster's next meal!

Ragna could feel his stomach churn when he heard the beast near the area in which he was hiding out in and held his breath as he sunk to the snow littered earth and clasped his hands over his frost-bitten mouth. He was determined not to make any noise when the bane of his very existence at the moment finally appeared before him, and he would stay as quiet as a mouse if it met getting out of this alive. If he could fight it he would—he was amongst the strongest in his clan and has dealt with a few creatures many times his own size before—but he neglected to bring any sort of weapon with him to defend himself out of his own ignorant disbelief. Maybe if he prayed hard enough to every deity in existence he'll come out of this alive, but he knew that praying alone was not going to get him out of here in time. Willing up all the courage he could muster, Ragna cracked open one eye and turned his head to peek behind the decaying tree to see where the monster was but instantly turned back around when he saw its foot come into his field of view.

They were large and pitch black, the claws big enough to crush whole boulders to dust and dark enough to blend into the cold, frigid nights of his country. He then heard its growl, a low, nearly hoarse sounding bark that rang through the forests and assaulted his ears, the noise almost like that of a dying animal. It continued to stomp lazily across the snow in an awkward, uncoordinated gait, Ragna perceiving that the thing was still unaware of his existence, but continuing to remain dead-silent so as not to be spotted. It then roared once more, the grumbling bark sounding less hostile and more tired this time while its footsteps kept getting slower and slower and slower until they had abruptly stopped.

Ragna dared not to move, the young lad thinking that maybe it had finally found out his hiding spot and was waiting for Ragna to come out again so it could strike, and waited anxiously for his inevitable demise until he caught a whiff of a very odd and coppery stench that he has been very familiar since he was a boy.

The air around him smelt of blood.

Ragna, feeling perplexed, decided to look behind the tree again to see where the metallic odor was coming from and gasped when he saw the most peculiar thing. The beast had left a trail of blood in its wake—large splotches of red staining the pearl white snow and soaking into the grass that hid beneath it. Wait a minute, he thought, this creature couldn't be hurt...correct? Ragna looked up high to try and catch a glimpse of the beast to see whether or not it was true until he saw the giant tumble forward and collapse on the ground, the earth shaking once more and sending heaps of snow to fall from elevated tree branches and land on Ragna's head.

The man grumbled before shaking the frozen white fluff out of his furs and hesitantly crawled away from the large tree to finally view the monster everyone in his tribe was so scared of. It was an impressive sized beast, perhaps the size of five bears, with coarse, umber fur all over its robust body with an equally as coarse, thick mane of yellow fur around its neck. He really should run while he can before this thing decided to get back up and kill him on the spot, but his curiosity was piqued, and he wanted to see more of this profoundly odd looking beast. He stood up from his spot in the snow, and approached the creature carefully—his boots crunching along the powdery land as he took in more of its features and steadily grew increasingly interested by what it was.

Its arms were long and gangly with a thin membrane of velvet skin stretching over its fingers and lining both sides of its body all the way to its legs, almost resembling wings in a way. Two small and pointed ears laid atop its head while its face, surprisingly enough, actually resembled a fox, almost like how his tribe described it. He could hear pitiable, high-pitched whines emit from its throat, and once he was close enough, saw the way it panted heavily to attain some oxygen into its gaping maw as more blood leaked out from its body.

The young man almost felt bad for the poor thing in a way. It honestly seemed better to put it out of its misery by driving a dagger through its neck and calling it a day, but he sadly lacked the proper tool to do such a thing.

It was then, at that very moment, was when Ragna thought to himself about whether to abandon the suffering animal and let the elements take care of it, or if he himself should help it in some way. It was a tough choice to make for the young norsemen, but when he noticed the strange creature's whines grow a little louder from the pain that it was in was when Ragna decided that the more humane way of handling this situation was to try and save its life.

With hesitation, he laid tentative hands on its wing and lifted the large limb to reveal any more wounds that afflicted its body and lurched when he saw something large, thick and bark like jabbed into its side.

It looked like a giant stake had pierced its flesh with red leaking around the wooden material and staining the beast's dark fur. Ragna narrowed his eyes and moved its wing away from the wound before using his strength to roll the beast onto its back gently while trying not to disturb the injury. The creature wailed at the odd position it was now in, but allowed it nonetheless since it was entirely too weak to do anything about it besides lie there. Ragna then checked the belt that was looped around his trousers and began searching for the satchels that held all of the medicines and ointments that he carried around with him just in case he or his brothers got hurt. Once he found what he needed, he unhooked the large sack from his belt and dumped its contents onto the ground, the man sorting out the tools he needed as he stared at the spike that was still stabbed inside the poor thing.

Alright... Time to get the hard part out of the way.

He made quick work with his fingers as he grabbed hold of the stake with both hands and wedged it out with one strong pull, the beast's eyes widening as it released a blood curdling screech from its throat. Ragna groaned loudly and dropped the stake to the ground to cover his ears and block the scream, nervously waiting for the beast to thrash violently from the pain and knock him out in the process, but looked surprised when he saw no such struggle. The beast continued to stay prone on its back, its large beady red eyes stained with tears staring at Ragna as if pleading for him to either kill it, or finish what he started.

The norseman knew what he had to do, and quickly fetched the cloth that sat amongst the pile of supplies he laid out on the ground and pressed it against the wound to soak up the blood. He kept it there for a while before lifting it off to grab hold of a small vial of alcohol and pour the liquid around the gash to disinfect it, the creature yipping and moving around a little from the burning sting. Ragna did everything he could to stop the bleeding, routinely sprinkling medicinal herbs and powders around the injury before patting it down with new cloth to see if it would get soaked in more crimson.

When he unraveled a new piece of cotton to dab it against the gaping hole once more and soak whatever blood that remained, he sighed in relief when he saw none, and proceeded to take out a needle and some plant twine to stitch the wound close with the best of his ability. It only took five or ten minutes or so to suture the wound, and once he was done, he gathered his remaining supplies back into his satchel and wiped a drop of sweat from his brow as he looked at the stitch marks. It was not as neat as his mother's handiwork, but he sewed it up tight enough where it should not reopen if it ever did.

Ragna watched the beast roll over off its back and onto its stomach, it lifting its large wing to view the stitches at its sides. It sniffed the sutures suspiciously with its wet nose, its tongue peeking from its snout to lick at it gently and coat it with saliva before it looked up at the young man curiously. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Ragna's conscious was currently yelling at him to run away from this monster while he still had the chance, but he just couldn't bring himself to do so. The beast, despite how big it was, actually looked kind of cute—its ruby eyes and long muzzle prompting the norseman to bend down and pet the creature's snout tenderly.

"You should be alright now..." he reassured, smiling a little. "Just try not to get hurt like that again, okay?"

The beast leaned into his touch in affirmation and used its long tongue to lap at his glove briefly before lifting itself off the ground with its wings to bow her head. Never has a mortal man ever done something so nice for her—not even members of her race ever acted selfless enough to save a life on the brink of death unless it was for their own personal gain. She wished that she could change into her other form to verbally disclose her appreciation for the man, but opted to merely bow her head in thanks than to drain the scant amounts of energy she had left. That thorn had been embedded in her side for the better half of the day from some spiteful villager's attempt to kill her, but it just barely missed a major organ thankfully. However, if this man were not here to tend to her wound, she would have surely died.

The beast saw Ragna bow his own head down in respect and carefully trudge past her, he muttering something or other about a ball that he needed to find. She watched him walk through the piles of snow that covered the forest floor and noticed him look over his shoulder and wave her a curt goodbye before going his way. She took that chance to take in his attributes as a result, her eyes scanning his handsome features and admiring the blondeness of his hair and green of his eyes.

It was then, after the humbled creature put the other's features to memory, did she spread her wings and take to the skies, her arms flapping in such a way so that no pressure was applied to her wound.

A simple lick on the hand and a silent nod of her head will not be enough of a way to truly express her gratitude. The next time she sees him, when she has gathered enough strength to fly better, will she bestow upon him an item of sorts as a present.

* * *

It did not take long for her to return home, but she could have gone faster if it were not for her affliction and the now falling snow that battered her large body and kept her from flying properly. She breathed heavily through her nose from the exertion of it all and instantly perched herself on a cliff that jutted from the mountain side that housed her cave to rest her aching limbs.

She shook her body of the large amounts of puffy white flakes that clung to her fur and felt her mouth salivate when she smelled the appetizing aroma of cooking food waft from within the cavern. A hot meal was definitely what she needed right now, and the delicious scent it emited was an indicator that her ally, her only friend rather, has also arrived back to their home.

With the last of her strength, she morphed into a size and figure that was more human in appearance and sauntered into the cave, her large veiny ears and thick black tail the only monstrous characteristics that stayed. She climbed over the rocks and sediment that littered the floor until she felt bundled cushions of straw and hay under her feet rather than hard pebbles when she ventured further inside. She kept on trudging along the now soft trail and stopped when she saw a large pot of stew cooking over an open fire and a man sitting next to it who was mixing its contents occasionally with a ladle that laid besides him. The fluffy iris tinted ears that rested on the sides of his head twitched when he heard her presence which prompted the man to turn around to see who had entered. He soon smiled however when he saw his friend's face instead of some stranger, and happily greeted her.

"You came just in time, my dear," he beamed. "Supper is almost ready."

She nodded, hobbled over to a corner opposite of him, and sat down. "That is comforting to hear," She sighed. "I had a most upsetting day..."

"Oh?" He frowned, seeming a tad confused. "Did something happen?" This man right here was Amane, an old acquaintance of her's who she resided within this dank little cave with. He too was a shapeshifter, but he had a preference for adopting his humanoid illusion most of the time rather than his true form unlike her. He looked enough like any regular mortal, but his vulpine ears and the three large bushy tails that sprouted from his backside easily gave away that he was not of human kind.

"It is nothing for you to be concerned about..." She muttered. "I'm fine."

"Fine? Rachel, darling, there is no need for you to lie to me..."Amane sniffed the air briefly and felt his nostrils flare when he smelled a stench radiate off the girl's body. "You got hurt, didn't you?"

Rachel grimaced and refused to acknowledge his question with an answer. If she told him about how she was even injured, Lord only knows the earful that she would receive from him.

When he was given no answer, the older man shook his head. "I thought so..." He sighed and quickly crawled over to her side. "Let me see," He said, crossing his arms. "You cannot hide everything from me, my dear. This nose is too keen for any such deception."

"I am aware..." She rolled her eyes and straightened her posture to roll up her shirt and present her stomach to him. The wound was still very fresh and the stitches had yet to heal long enough to dissolve into her body. It was not a very big concern for Rachel though since all she has to do was rest and rub some herbs over it to help accelerate the healing process, but for Amane, the infliction was an unsightly thing for him to witness on his dear friend.

"Rachel!" He shouted. "How on earth did you get that!? That's no ordinary wound and you know it! How would I **not** be able to find out about this!?"

"Calm yourself..." She cringed at how loud he was and turned up her lip in irritation. "I was outside searching for food until a villager decided to attack me from the shadows..." She explained. "I tried paying him no mind, and proceeded to continue on my way until he winded up shooting a stake at me."

"A stake...?" Amane whispered drearily. "Why did he do that? How bad was it...?

Rachel hesitated to respond and graced him with silence for a moment once more until she heard him snarl in warning. "It nearly pierced my liver..." She finally said. "I had no choice but to kill him to prevent him from harming me any longer. As for why he did it... He probably mistakened me for the wrong bat..."

Amane kept silent, his ears flattening slightly as he chewed through Rachel's words and resisted freaking out once more. "Ugh..." He grumbled, the fox-like shapeshifter staring intently at her stomach. "I've warned you time and time again how you cannot mingle so casually with mortals here, dear. They have never seen a species of your kind before."

Rachel said nothing and was about to put her shirt back down until Amane rested his hand against her own to stop her. "Wait..." He rose from his position to march off to a different part of the cave. "Let me find some gauze to cover it up so it won't get infected. I swear, I just don't know what to do with you sometimes." He scrambled about the hay covered rocks for any medical equipment or bandages that he had, and returned back to Rachel quickly when he found some. "Hold your shirt up," He said, sitting down back next to her.

The younger girl quietly did what she was told and watched Amane's expert hands unravel a bundle of white cloth and wrap it around her torso. "Still..." He began, inspecting her stitched side. "The fact that you cleaned and stitched it so quickly is strange. How did you do it so fast?"

"I didn't," Rachel replied. "A village boy helped me."

"A human?" Amane's expression changed from worried to anxious as he lunged at Rachel's stomach to sniff at the stitches much to the other shapeshifter's chagrin.

"Do you mind!?" She yelled.

"He didn't poison you or anything, right!?"

"No, you idiot!" Rachel pushed his face away with one hand and glowered at him. "I'm fine! I already checked myself before I arrived! Do you not know how to mind someone's personal space?"

Amane pouted but then shrugged it off. "I just wanted to make sure..." He frowned, the old fox going back to wrapping Rachel back up. "So what was this lad like?" He asked. "It's even stranger that a human would aid a winged beast with such care, so I am curious."

"Perhaps," She responded. "But this boy was not like any typical mortal. He had this look in his eye when he saw me on that ground... It was like a ray of innocent, yet brave compassion radiated from him when he healed me despite the horror stories he may have heard about my kind." Rachel turned her head to the entrance of the cave to look on into the distance, the swirling white snow that whipped around the evergreen needles of the pine trees outside reminding the girl of that boy's glimmering pools of shamrock. "It touched me when I first saw it."

Amane listened to her words and could not help but smile. "My, my, darling, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're falling in love."

"Shut your trap." She deadpanned. "Such a thing only happens in fairy tales."

"Oh hush, you know I was kidding." He cut the bandages that were on Rachel's body away from the bundle with his claws and proceeded to stitch the cloth together. "So what now? Are you going to go see him again?"

"Of course. I must see him again if I am going to repay his gratitude."

He pulled down Rachel's blouse and cocked his head to the side. "Hm? How are you going to do that? I may be privy to how mortals work, but it is beyond me how the mind of a mere boy is like."

"Maybe a gift shall work."

"A gift?"

"Yes..." She grabbed at a bundle of furs on the ground and shifted her body so she may lay on them on to rest her belly. "I am not sure what but a gift nonetheless."

Amane joined her on the floor, his chin propped up in his hand as he looked down at her with an intrigued expression. "I'm confident you'll figure something out, my dear. If you need any help, I'm right here."

"As much as I hate the thought of coming to you for anything, I shall do it if it means gaining some ideas of what a boy should want."

The fox let out a fake cry and whimpered. "Oh so mean to me... You never ever said a single nice word to me since we met!"

Rachel felt her stomach growl and kicked his thigh. "Just shut up and get back to cooking—I'm famished."

He sighed but smirked at her before rising back up. "Yes, ma'am." He said sarcastically.

**Author's Note:**

> Amane is such a treat to write.


End file.
